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Newsletter from 11/09/2013

IP at IBC - 4K in Brazil - 8K in Tokyo - 3D in Wacken

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At this year’s IBC we will see the first IT-based live production switcher. Designed to overcome the inherent limitations of traditional hardware-based video switchers, the IT-approach to video processing delivers a scalable, cost-effective and high-performance workflow for both studio-based and remote live broadcast operations. At the FIFA World Cup in Brazil we will see a 4K live signal and in Tokyo 2020 NHK will deliver 8K live signals while last month nearly 75,000 "metal heads" from all over the world got together for the Wacken Open Air to worship their music and their high priests: the most famous bands of the international metal scene - and of course to celebrate their festival together and all was produced in 3D.

MOBILE PRODUCTION

NEP EN1: Four Units, One Show

NEP’s EN1 — complete with A, B, C, and D units — is the newest and most technologically advanced addition to the company’s fleet. Originally slated for a 2014 roll out, the 1080p-capable EN1 will hit the road today for the first game of ESPN’s Monday Night Football doubleheader. NEP has had the privilege of working with the ESPN for over twenty years on the same show that they will be using EN1 for. One thing the NEP team has learned about this production over the years is that change is truly inevitable. Along with changing air days and times, the series has moved mobile units from SS8 to SS16 to SS20 to SS25 and now to EN1. Its facilities have grown over the years from a two-trailer unit to what today will be five trailers. With this history, NEP knew that one of the key mantras while building EN1 had to be "room to grow". Though the capabilities initially are to be the same as SS25, their current facilities, there has to be substantial room for growth, both physically and technologically.

SP TELEFILM is one of South America’s leading TV production companies specialised in all types of production with a major emphasis on sports. The company is 100% committed to training and personal skills development wherever we produce, with more than 30 years of international experience covering F1 and INDY races, Brazilian soccer championships and Soccer World Cup, hard news and other events. SP Telefilm is located in Sao Paulo with partnerships in all main Brazilian cities.

Bivolul is based in Bucharest and offers the first HD OBVan to the Romanian market. The van can operate up to 24 HD cameras and has a complete Dolby surround audio system. The company is also active in the rental business with a high level portfolio of products for video, sound, lighting and staging.

The 13m trailer has a single expanding side and will host 12 Sony cameras, two providing super slow-motion, plus an extra camera on a Links wireless system with remote control. The cameras all use fibre connectivity, and the order includes a range of Canon outside broadcast lenses (up to x95), Sachtler supports and Egripment sports dollies and tracks. The production area has a Sony MVS-8000 production switcher and two six-channel EVS XT[3] servers. Comprehensive graphics capability is provided by Vizrt, including Viz Arena graphics linked to a Vinten precision tracking head. The audio area features a Lawo mixer. Sony OLED monitors are fed by Harris Broadcast multiviewers, and Harris Broadcast is also providing the router, infrastructure and measurement equipment. SPGs are by Trilogy. The vehicle is also equipped with an Advent NewSwift 1.2m Ku-band motorised and fully automatic satellite antenna.

The upgrade will include seven LDX Première™ software upgradable cameras, a Karrera® Video Production Center switcher, a K2 Dyno® Replay System, and a Concerto™ Series 128x128 compact routing system. The complete Grass Valley solution enables the Sioux Falls, SD-based company to bring high quality HD to its clients and viewers with cost efficiency, while delivering a software-only path to 3G in the future. “By partnering with Grass Valley, we can produce high-end productions at a cost that suits our budget, and have the flexibility to easily work at any stadium that is pre-wired with triax cable,” said Ron Peterson, Chief Broadcast Engineer, Midco Sports Network. “This gives us enormous freedom and we look forward to the completion of this upgrade.”

The 2013 Directory features about 42 new HD trucks from all around the world: China, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Qatar, Cyprus, United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Germany. In addition to detailed listings of the installed equipment the directory shows the various working areas inside the trucks as well as views of the monitor walls and the floor plans. You also will find a review on the FIFA Confederations Cup and a preview on the FIFA World Cup. We introduce the ANO Panorama OB fleet which will broadcast the Sochi Olympic Games to the Russian audience. A case study about the Al Jazeera sports channel beINSport is included in this year's directory which you now can order in our shop. We also have the directory with us at the IBC in Amsterdam where you can find us at the media alley between hall 8 and hall 9.

SPORTS

Camera Corps Q-Ball Takes Red Bull Cliff Diving Right to The Edge

"This is exactly the type of outside broadcasting the Q-Ball was designed for," comments Camera Corps Managing Director Laurie Frost. "It enabled the Red Bull production team to achieve shots that would have been extremely dangerous if not impossible in any other way. Red Bull built the diving platform as a long overhang from the roof of Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. They created a rigid structure to simulate a man-made cliff, forming a perfectly stable mount for the Q-Ball. The production team were able to make full use of this platform to capture close-up and follow-shots of each contestant during the approach, launch and descent. The Q-Ball provided footage from the centre of the action without requiring a camera team to operate in a dangerous and potentially distracting location. Each dive was televised both live and in slow motion to capture the full emotion of this extreme sport."

The America’s Cup is the oldest active trophy in international sport, attracting attention and prestige from around the world since 1851. The 2013 competition approaches its exciting conclusion this September with the three challenging teams – Artemis Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Challenge – having competed throughout September for the Louis Vuitton Cup and, with it, the right to take on the current holders, ORACLE Team USA. The America’s Cup Final is underway during IBC with the challenger and ORACLE Team USA competing over up to 17 races with the first to reach 9 wins becoming the new America’s Cup champion. Paul McNeil, Head of the onsite SIS LIVE Special Cameras team said “I am immensely proud of the whole team on site and all the engineering effort that happened at base to get us to this ground breaking coverage. When you see the strength in depth that SIS LIVE has across all areas, the future is very bright.”

SHOWS

Clay Paky Celebrates The Rolling Stones 50th Anniversary across the US

The Stones sell-out 50th anniversary tour is their first in six years. They opened the U.S. leg May 3 in LA and concluded their 18 dates June 24 in Washington, D.C. The legendary band performed on a stage set featuring a giant set of psychedelic lips and a tongue-shaped walkway that riffed on their iconic logo. Lighting Designer Patrick Woodroffe chose Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1500s for the gigs. Co-Lighting Director Ethan Weber comments, “They’re a very impressive, bright, good-looking light.” They also scattered a complement of Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures around the trusses. “You see Sharpys on every show now,” Weber points out. “It’s a turnaround from a few years ago when we were all using large format lights as our 3rd source. They add a nice texture to most any look.

The bold stage and presentation aesthetics for 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, took inspiration from the ultra-cool MTV Moon Man Award statue that received a special 30th anniversary makeover this year by New Jersey street-artist KAWS. Lighting Designer Tom Kenny worked the same style – blurring the lines between fine art and pop art - into multiple areas of the onstage lighting treatment, with 80 of Robe’s new Pointe multi-purpose moving light fixtures, a vital element of his rig of over 1000 moving heads. These were supplied to the event along with 32 x Robe ROBIN LEDWash 600s and 20 x LEDWash 1200s by rental specialist, VER. Robe’s powerful, super-bright Pointes were positioned left and right of the stage and behind the VIP stage / seating area. They were used - metaphorically - to “blow people away!”

CPL’s five camera package comprised three Sony HXC100s, one on track-and-dolly located around the front of the stage thrust fitted with a Canon HK14 lens for dramatic wide shots – for which there were plenty of opportunity with eye-catching scenery in the background. On the stage right was another HXC100 on a standard dolly and the third was out at the FOH position, complete with a Canon HJ40 lens for long shots and to capture the overall stage. There was also a hand-held Sony EX3 on a wireless Camwave link onstage and the camera count was completed with a Panasonic AW100 hot head hung from the FOH structure, which was modelled like a smaller temple.

"Antisocial Network and the Gosejohann Brothers" Goes on Air with MMC Studios

“On behalf of REDSEVEN Entertainment, the MMC Studios provided technical support for the different challenges of the production ‘antisocial network’. All challenges and the emotional reactions of the candidate were recorded with the help of hidden cameras: at the dance challenge, at a course for painting nudes, in a café, and at a piano concert in the city hall. The MMC art department converted a delivery van into a mobile control room, in order to monitor and control the candidate. The van was then equipped with video, audio and lighting equipment. It was transformed into a combination of a set, an outside broadcast unit, and a command center.

PRODUCTS

More than 50,000 professionals from over 160 countries engaged in the content creation, management and delivery of electronic media and entertainment will convene at IBC2013 in Amsterdam tomorrow, ready to challenge, direct and set the industry's agenda through a world class conference and vibrant exhibition. Uniting everything and everyone you need to know, IBC Amsterdam is the perfect forum to network and exchange ideas.

3D/4K ARISING

Forget 4K. By Tokyo 2020 it will be 8K

By tomorrow delegates and exhibitors to IBC will be discussing the merits of 4K production for TV, with most industry observers now agreeing that 4K will be introduced commercially in 2014 and start making headway in 2015. But the decision to award to 2020 Summer Olympics to Tokyo fits in beautifully with Japanese public broadcaster NHK’s plans for 8K, its Super Hi-Vision concept. 8K – and a few more years of development – could deliver a few more temptations for viewers: true 3D without glasses, for example. Time will tell, but the industry now has a target to work towards, and Tokyo 2020 could be extremely important, and not just for the athletics.

Eutelsat and Samsung used the giant IFA electronics show to announce a dedicated 4K/Ultra HDTV channel, and Eutelsat’s 3rd ‘test 4K channel to go on air. The idea is for this channel to show a rolling loop of high-quality video for Samsung-equipped retail outlets. Samsung unveiled a 98” 4K set at IFA (along with a new 55” OLED display) although the 98” is strictly in the domain of Russian oligarchs and sporting superstars who can afford the minimum $40,000 price tag. Samsung also showed off a 110” U-HDTV display. Eutelsat is using its 10A craft for the transmissions.

Much has been reported, written and documented about the festival. But what exactly is Wacken and what makes it so special? What is the fascination of this festival, what the magic - the "soul"? What has Wacken what others do not have? It is hard to say with words, numbers or anecdotes. And yet somehow very simple: To understand Wacken, you have to experience Wacken! Wacken 3D is exactly going that step further and moves into the midst of the action. Director Norbert Heitker, director of photography and producer Tomas Erhart and their colleagues have filmed this year's Wacken Open Air festival with 16 3D cameras around the clock at various venues in real stereo 3D. Wacken 3D is a trip through the complete Wacken universe – it will bring you as close as possible to the festival and you will experience all its diversity, its atmosphere and all its untamed force "live".